The terms must distinguish transactional from promotional messages
The requirementstatement
Where the programme sends both transactional and promotional messages, the terms must distinguish them and describe the separate consent.
- Severityseverity
- HighHIGHRejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- When it bitesphase
- Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
- What is checkedobject
- SMS terms body
- Where it liveslayer
- Policy pagesPOLICY_PAGE
- How Ekas settles itdetectability
- AI · formAI_FORM
- A semantic question about what you wrote: whether a description matches a use case, whether a name looks like a filed entity. Judged by a model against written criteria.
- What the fix involvesfailureClass
- Fix the policyTERMINAL_POLICY
- The fix lives in your privacy policy or SMS terms. Ekas can generate the missing clauses.
- Who requires itauthorities
- Twilio
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
The two categories carry different consent standards, and a subscriber who agreed to order updates has not agreed to weekly offers — bundling them is the defect Twilio codes at the campaign level. A document that lumps them together makes the bundling official, which is worse for the brand than the practice alone.
How to fix itremediation
Describe the two categories separately in the terms and say that promotional messages need their own opt-in. Done when a reader can tell which consent covers which messages.
A compliant exampleexample
Order updates are sent to every customer who places an order. Promotional offers are sent only to customers who ticked the marketing box — you can receive one without the other.
Provider rejection codescodes
The code you get back when this rule is what failed, and whether that provider lets you resubmit.
| Provider | Code | Resubmit |
|---|---|---|
| Twiliogen1 | 30913 | Yes |
Notesnotes
Applies only where both categories are sent; the criteria pass immediately for a single-category programme, since there is nothing to distinguish.
Rules you will hit next
6 other rules read SMS terms body. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.
POL-171The terms must describe the programmeBlockingBLOCKINGPOL-175The terms must carry opt-out informationBlockingBLOCKINGPOL-110A cart-reminder programme must be reflected in the termsHighHIGHPOL-151The SMS terms must be about the messaging programmeHighHIGHPOL-191The terms must say the opt-in applies to this programme onlyHighHIGHPOL-192A sweepstakes campaign needs its sweepstakes terms in the T&CHighHIGH
POL-189 is one of 157 policy pages rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.